Jill Kerttula’s fiber art is the culmination of years of professional art experience, combined with her avocations of sewing and photography. Kerttula was a professional graphic designer and art director; she taught college level art and design classes; as an art major, she had specialized in printmaking; and she also spent several years on the art fair circuit selling wearable art.

The fiber works that Kerttula now creates, merge her photography, drawing, and stitching. She puts it this way: “My photos are what I saw. My stitching changes it to how I, as an artist, see it.” The stitching allows her to celebrate and express textures in a way that the flat surface of photography or drawing does not. Her photography or drawings provide the underlying composition for her work.

In 2014, she retired from commercial design work, and moved to Virginia. It was then she started using larger scale digital printing printed on fabric, and working full-time as a fine artist. Her work has received many awards in international and national shows. In 2015, Kerttula spent a month as the Artist-in-Residence at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and her studio is in residence at the McGuffey Art Center in Charlottesville, VA. In 2018, was one of two international artists chosen to present a solo show as a ‘Rising Star’ at the International Quilt Festival in Houston Texas. She also had a solo show at the Rocky Mountain Museum of Quilts in 2018. In 2019 she was been juried into the prestigious international ‘Quilt National’ biennial show.